The Voice of Creation

The creation is not silent.  It has a voice.  It is the voice of the shrieking red breasted hawk high in the air, branches cracking in trees, the tearing sound of grass before grazing cows, the unseen owl moving about in the darkness, and the buzzing of a hundred black gnats.  There is actually more to be heard that the ear can hear.  And, of course, there are others voices which the spirit must strain to hear like the rising wind, the silence in the midst of the stillness, and the seed bursting forth from the ground.

 

Jesus understood the voices of the creation.  On one occasion when His antagonists told Him to silence His disciples, he answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."  (Luke 19:40).  After ten years of learning to listen to the creation in which the farm lives, it would not surprise me to hear a word from a stone as I have from all sorts of creatures, broken limbs, and things left by those who have walked and worked this land before me.  The earth is indeed the Lord's and every part of it bears the imprint of His creating hands. 

And because every part of it bears the imprint of His creating hands, every part of the creation can become a means of Him making Himself known in the world.  Sometimes the voice is heard by the ears and sometimes it is like the sound of stones and only sensed by the spirit within.  The important thing for us as we live is to be mindful of the surrounding creation, to expect it to express both the presence and the voice of the Creator, and to always be prepared to fall on bended knee in gratitude for the blessings constantly being bestowed upon us.   

The Nature of God

While it is true that the Word of God teaches us many things about God, there are also things to be learned as we sit midst the creation and allow it to unfold around us.  One of the things learned as we learn to hear the unspoken Word is that God is utterly predictable.   This truth becomes evident as we begin to understand that the creation speaks to us about the nature of the One who brought it into being.  To let creation wash over us is to see order.  One season follows another.  Seeds are planted, not necessarily by human hands, and growth takes place.  The rain brings the dirt to life.

 

As the creation is predictable, so is its Creator.  He is utterly predictable.  He is loving, compassionate, merciful, brings about justice, and always prevails over evil.  But, it is also true that God is utterly unpredictable.  His creation is both predictable and unpredictable.  Trees fall.  Rivers run beyond their banks.  Storms come on sunny afternoons.  Temperatures can be unseasonable.  Creation is always bringing surprising and unexpected moments in our life.

 

There is no putting God in some box of predictability.  He is constantly bringing into our lives the surprising and unexpected moments.  He is all about Mystery.  What is known about Him is miniscule compared to what cannot be known.  He works in ways impossible to understand or predict as He moves to bring all that He has created in sync with His ongoing purposes and plans.  As the creation is both predictable and unpredictable, so is it Creator.

Being Home

When I was a boy growing up back in the Waycross, Georgia years, it was often our custom to go to Aunt Angie's for lunch on Sunday afternoon.  By the time I got to know her, she was a widow who lived in a frame wood dog trot farm house out in the middle of nowhere.  When we gathered it was usually a big family event.  The food filled the table like Homecoming at a country church.  There was fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, butter beans and peas, mashed potatoes, biscuits, corn on the cob, and blackberry pie for desert. 

 

Back then I did not realize it was the thing of which memories are made.  Now I know it is not only something which warms the heart as a memory, but also something which points me ahead to the feast in the eternal heavenly place.  I really don't know much about heaven.  I have never spent much time trying to figure it out, but figuring it out is not necessary for me to know it is something for which my soul longs.  So many of those who gathered with me at Aunt Angie's table have gone on to the heavenly place.  They surely must be a part of that eternal group described in the first verse of Hebrews 12, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses..."

My childhood memory of an abundant feast and a family gathered around the table creates an image which speaks of what is to come.  It is a memory more perfect than it possibly could have been, and one perfect enough to point us toward the joyful gathering in the heavenly place.  Particulars about heaven I have never needed.  It is enough to know it is out there beyond this life, but also every once in a while breaking into this life to encourage us and increase our hope.  And as surely as that table gathering at Aunt Angie's was about being home, so is heaven mostly about finally making it home. 

Eating with Respect

Being on a farm means being plopped down in the midst of creation.  It also caused some unexpected moments of reflection about the food being eaten.  Contrary to the popular opinion that food comes in cans from the grocery store, it really comes from dirt.  Being here these years has kept me grounded.  It has caused me to realize that the way we eat or handle our food can express disrespect instead of gratitude.  And about the same time that I got here, I started reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,"  by Barbara Kingsolver which really opened a new world when it comes to food and eating.

 

More recently I have started reading a book entitled "Food and Faith"  by Norman Wirzba.  The subtitle for the book is "A Theology of Eating."  Who would have thought such a thing existed?  One of the things this author says in the earlier pages set the tone for what follows, "Food is God's love made nutritious and delicious, given for the good of each other.  The mundane act of eating is thus a daily invitation to move responsibly and gracefully within this given life."  While this reading is in its infancy stages, it is obvious that Wirzbais is going to open up some interesting things for consumption.

 

Whether we think of food as an expression of love, or as a gift, the act of eating can be a moment of expressing gratitude or disrespect.  Growing beef for the table here at the farm has brought with it a new appreciation for the food eaten, a respect for it that makes wasting any of it seem like a sin, and a gratitude that goes beyond the table blessing.  When we eat so hurriedly that we hardly know what we eat, or how it tastes, we have come to a place of taking for granted something divinely given.  What we eat does speak of God' love and His gift as well as the uncountable sacrifice of animals and people who labor to get the food to us. 

From Table to Mouth

As long as are memories are table blessings.  When I look back at the earliest days of my childhood, I am often amazed that they were filled with things pointing me toward God.  Before every meal there was a moment for bowing heads and offering a prayer of blessing for the food.  The blessings I learned as a young boy were short, simple, and easy enough to memorize.  They were learned from my mother who, as I look back at those years, was always seeking to  point me toward God.

 

Learning it is important to be grateful for food is an important lesson.  It may seem to just show up on the table, but it never really happens that way.  In the days of growing up, food came not from the take out window at a nearby fast food dispensary, but from a kitchen where hours were spent getting food ready and cooking it.  Only as an adult did I learn why so many prayers include both a word of gratitude for the food and the one who prepares it.  Cooking a meal was then and continues to be an act of love. 

 

Nowadays, as I consider pre-meal moments, I find my view broadening even beyond the immediacy of the garden outside and the kitchen in our home.  Nothing we eat just comes.  It comes paid for with sacrifice, sweat, energy, and time.   Animals are slaughtered for meat, produce comes from a ground heavy with sweat, and working hours bring it to the table.  But, beyond all of this is the graciousness of a God who has created an order which is abundant in life giving provisions.   God blesses us in more ways than we can count, but if we can count to three, we know there are at least three moments in the span of a day when those life giving blessings move from table to mouth. 

Divine Care and Provision

Though I am an old man now, I can at times still remember my mother standing at the open door calling me home for supper.  Many a late afternoon ballgame came to an end as my mother let me know it was time to quit whatever I was doing and come home to eat.  The food had been cooked and was on the table.  There was a place for me at that table and her voice let me know it was time to get in it.  Once in our places around the table, there was a blessing for the food and then it was time to eat.

Only as I got older did I realize what a blessing it was to share meals as I was brought up to do.  The television was in the other room and it was turned off.  The moment was about eating and being with family gathered around the table.  While it was not always a perfect time, it was a time set aside for all of us to sit in the presence of one another, thank God for the food and its preparation, engage in some conversation, and, of course, share the food which had been prepared. 

Much of that meal time tradition has been lost for our fast food families.  Eating the food is no longer the centerpiece of meal time.  We stay so busy doing something, watching something, or working on something as we eat that we often finish the meal and hardly know what we have eaten.  In such a culture there is not much need for table blessings.  Table blessings speak of gratitude for the provision of the Almighty God and the way we handle and eat our food in these days speaks more of it being an inconvenience than something which symbolizes the care and provision of God. 

Hearing the Unspoken Word

The unspoken Word is spoken to be heard only by those who have practiced the discipline of listening.  It is truly a hard discipline for most of us.  The listening which is required to hear the unspoken Word waiting to be spoken is learned in the silence and stillness.  Silence seems to be an evasive thing in a world full of sounds and noises.  And stillness is perceived as an impossible commodity in a world so busy we can hardly catch our breath.  It seems to most of us that we live in a world empty of both silence and stillness.

Actually, the silence and the stillness has always existed alongside, or maybe within, the noisy confusion that is so characteristic of our life.  In some ways it is like a parallel universe existing side by side, or maybe the more appropriate image is to see them interwoven like different strands of colored fabric in a piece of colorful cloth.  Even as we step into the chaos and confusion which is running rampant around us, so can we choose to step into the silence and the stillness.  It is there for us.  The door is open to it, but we are slow to see and even slower to enter it.

It is not that the Spirit of the Living God is unable to speak to us out of the noisy chaos, but that we are unable to hear.  The Word He speaks is an unspoken Word alien to physical ears, but always clear enough for the receptors of our spirit.  What cannot be heard with ears is instead heard by the senses with which we have been blessed since the days of our beginning.  When we speak of reading between the lines, we speak of seeing more than there is to see.  It is much the same in our learning to listen for the unspoken Word.  Seeing the open door which leads to the silence and the stillness always present in our world is like an invitation to hear what is being spoken to us from within. 

Rivers of Living Water

Coming to the farm ushered in a life of memorable firsts.  I remember the first time the cows escaped from the pasture.  It was not a tree falling over the fence, but the gate being left open.  I remember, too, my first days of working with a chainsaw.  Having never picked up one, it took forever to figure out the choking mechanism.  And, one of my favorite memories is the day the tractor was delivered and put on the ground.  I had sat on a tractor, but never drove one.  I remember the  day.  It was raining, but the tractor was here and I was so excited I spent the day working in the rain.

 

There is one  memory, though, which border on being miracle like.  Whenever I turn on the spigot in the house and fill a glass of clean clear water, I remember the first time I had anything to do with a deep well being drilled  into the earth.  I am still amazed that clean drinking water comes from a river that runs deep in the earth.  It is water that requires no purifying chemicals.  It comes ready to drink.  To drink water that has come from so deep in the earth always seems like participating in a miracle.

Some of the writers of spiritual stuff use the image of a river to speak of life with God.  The river image speaks of the movement of the Spirit in the world and our being willing to be carried by its currents into wherever it would take us.  This river of God is not a trickling stream but a powerful force of the Spirit which moves from the deep place within the very heart of God.  Jesus spoke of springs of water (John 4:14) and rivers of living water (John 7:38).   It is nothing short of a miracle that this river of living water can flow into and out of the hearts of those who trust in God.  (John 7:38).

Who Believes in Prayer?

Most everyone says they believe in prayer.  But, there is no real believing in prayer without the act of praying.  To speak of believing in the power of prayer without putting the discipline into practice is like believing you can swim without ever getting into the water.  The old Biblical pragmatist we know as James wrote, "Bu be doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves..."  (James 1:22)  It is not enough to talk about what we believe, it must be put into practice.

When we pray, we should pray with expectancy.  Again the writer James tells us, "But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind."  (James 1:6)  Praying with expectancy is a spiritual marker which enables us to measure how much we believe in the prayers we are offering for others.  Too many times we pray as a last measure without any real confidence that it is going to make any difference.  With such prayers, no one should be surprised that such praying is devoid of power.  It is nothing more than an exercise in futility. 

When we do get beyond talking about praying and actually begin to pray for someone, we may sense within our spirit a divine leading which brings us to a point of action.  But, coming to a point of such a realization still has to be undergirded with will and determination.  Many a prayer has gone unanswered and unheeded, or so it might seem to us, because we were not willing to do what we were led to do.  Praying does not often bring us into a "Let George do it" moment, but one which is likely to involve us in the work needed beyond the praying.  To believe in prayer is to believe such is also a part of what happens when we pray and then getting on with it. 

Different Views

To talk about holy revelation taking place midst and through the creation might be a bit frightening to some who fear that such thinking will lead to a kind of spirituality which ends up making a tree into God.  And while there have been those who ended up in the throes of pantheism, it is also true that God intends for us to experience both His voice and His presence in and through the creation which He has so graciously put around us.   In the first chapter of Romans we hear the Word of God declaring,  "Ever since the creation of the world His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things He has made."  (Romans 1:20)

 

Of course, everyone has a different view of the creation.  No two of us see and experience it exactly alike.  The view of creation here on the farm is far different from the week long view experienced some years ago when it was viewed mostly from the fourth floor of a hospital room.  On the farm I walked among the trees; there I looked out to see the tops of trees below me.  Everywhere we go with eyes to see, the creation of God is seen differently. 

And even as the creation is seen differently by each one of us, so is our experiencing the Holy One who reveals Himself in the creation around us.  Of course, a part of what makes that experience different is the unique filter which fits within the scope of our own individuality.  It is a filter which is both given to us by the Creator and shaped by Him through the set of experiences granted to us on the journey.  How any one of us knows the presence of God and the sound of His voice has to do with the uniqueness of who we are.  They is no need to envy another.  There is no need to become a copycat.  The God who brought us into being will reveal Himself to us through the creation in ways which fit the relationship He has carved out with us. 

Praying in the Stillness

On my way back to the house from shutting up the chickens for the night, I suddenly became aware of stillness.  I was the only part of the creation moving.  Everything else was still.  Absolutely still.  I was walking, moving in sheer stillness.  A stillness had settled down hard upon the earth and I was out there in the midst of it.  And so I stopped.  I, too, became still.  As the still trees seemed to be doing, I watched and waited for whatever might be coming in the stillness of those final moments before the last colors of the evening disappeared.

 

As a captive in chains, I stood there bound by the stillness of the evening.  Finally, there was high above me in the top branches of the towering pecan tree a gentle movement.  I watched as the gentle movement of the wind began to touch all that was stilled around me.  Finally, what had stirred the top of the tree touched me as I stood there on the ground transfixed by what was moving around me.  What came in the fading light of the sun came lastly to me, but only because I had chosen to become a part of the stillness of the creation.

 

"O God, bless me with a heart that waits in the stillness!  Bless me with a spirit that has learned to sense the coming of the holy wind.  Bless me with the touch  of  the gentle wind of the Spirit as it moves above me, around me, and through me.  Father God, loving Son, and Holy Spirit hear my longing for the blessing of a stilled life that waits and watches.  Bless not just me, Father, but all who yearn for such stillness in their lives.  Come now as we wait in the stillness.  Amen."

Walking Midst Mystery

We know how we have gotten to this moment.  There is nothing mysterious about it.  We have simply lived long enough to get here.  As I reflect back over the years and the early departure of so many from the road we walked together, I know that the difference had nothing to do with me being special or taking some precautions.  I am here and they are there simply because of the way the years have added to bring me to now. 

 

It is not the how which gives me pause, but the why.  Why have I been blessed with so many years when so many I have known were blessed with so few?  Why am I alive and fairly healthy when they died in what we would characterize as an early and untimely death?  Why am I still here when they are gone is the question?  As much I have wondered, I still have no answer that puts that question on the shelf where resolved matters of life are stored.  Why?  Why have I have been blessed with the years when these good folks are no longer here?

 

Of course, it may have something to do with how we define blessing.  Dying does not necessarily mean blessings have ceased.  Surely, those who have died without the blessings of accumulating earthly years are being blessed in eternity.  And while some might suggest such a thought to be absurd as anyone would choose to live longer on this earth, it is not necessarily true.   It is only sure that we cannot know.  Why am I still here and walking without their presence? I do not know and cannot know.  Such things are truly only known by the Creator of us all.  Such things are a part of the mystery which is a part of life.  On this earth we walk in mystery.  Those who have arrived home before us no longer see the mystery and the Creator of the mystery dimly, but clearly. 

The Morning Hour

Anyone who has done even a little reading about those who have strongly modeled a life of prayer learns that the morning hour is not an hour to be wasted.   It seems that those who pray mightily are those who intentionally rise early to pray.  There was a time in my life when I lived by an agreement with the Almighty which went something like, "I won't bother you before eight o'clock if You won't bother me!"   Of course, this was not the first foolish thing I have ever said, nor will it likely be the last. 

 

As I moved through the years I finally came to a place of realizing that so many could not be wrong.  In the beginning early morning praying was hard.  It was done only with a lot of grumbling and effort.  But, somehow I managed to stay with it long enough for it to become a part of the discipline of my life.  I remember the final catalyst.  I was preaching a revival for a friend and staying with his family in the parsonage.  As we shared together, I discovered that he was one of those morning folks who got up early to pray.  His witness to me stirred my heart in such a way that a new routine for praying began to grow in me. 

 

And while the morning hour usually includes moments of praying, there are those times when I pull the covers over my head and retreat into my past.  I wish I was where I wanted to be, but find myself still on the road to where it is.  Perfection in anything has never been something in which I have excelled.  Somewhere I have learned the lesson that the destination is not as important as the journey.  It is an encouraging word for this old guy who has often found more struggle in the practice of spiritual disciplines than those models of prayer about which I have read.  But, as the Word says, "I press on...."  (Ephesians 3:14)

The Evening Hour

The evening hour brings tranquility into the world.  I am not surprised that it seemed to be a favorite time for the Lord God whose habits are described in the early pages of Genesis with the words, "They (Adam and Eve) heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze..." (Genesis 3:8)  When I was busy being a pastor the hours between the end of the work day and darkness were filled with hurrying from the office to the meeting room.  What was mainly lost for too long was the tranquility now experienced in the evening part of the creation. 

Evening brings evening breeze.  The hard sweat producing heat has let up for a few degrees of coolness.  In the evening creation shows its soft side.  Shades of gray mix with the orange and red and yellow of the sun's journey into the horizon.  It is a time which invites sitting and waiting.  It is a moment for reflection and contemplation.  The Genesis narrative suggests that the Lord God might be meandering around looking for someone to listen to what He might be in a mood to say.

Being in the midst of creation during this season of retirement has taught me to look and expect different things.  I have not yet learned all the Lord God is waiting to teach, but I am open now to a learning for which I saw no need for far too long.  I am grateful for the patience of this Holy One who brought the creation into being and cast me into it.  I have missed so much which belongs to moments which cannot be retrieved.  And I am hopeful for continued grace that I might finally find the eyes and ears and heart which He is seeking to grow in me that I might know more fully why He has brought me to this moment. 

Making Hay

"Make hay while the sun shines" is a phrase I have used all my life.  It has always been a word which reminded me to get it done while you can.  Coming to the farm from the sanctuary in this season of retirement has given the often used phrase new meaning.  One of the things grown around here is grass.  The grass is not sod for urban lawns, but grass for hay.  When the green pasture has turned brown, the cows spend their time at the hay bales.  Their winter job is to eat hay and mine is to get it to them.

 

What I have learned is that hay is best made in the sunshine.  Once the knee high grass is cut, it lays in the field for a day or two depending on the weather.  Hot sunny weather dries or cures the green grass turning into a brown low moisture feed.  No one who cuts hay with plans to bale it in the next day or so wants to see rain which means more work, a lower quality product, and, perhaps, mold and mildew in the bales.  "Make hay while the sun shines" is what everyone with cows is working on in these days so filled with overbearing heat and low humidity. 

 

And while everything done on the farm somehow points toward a partnership with the Creator, those bales of hay seen in the farm speak very loudly to it.  Once the grass is on the ground, it is up to the creation to finish the work.  When the farmer walks out of the freshly cut grass, there is always a look toward the sky and surely a prayer for continued hot dry weather.  The hay bales are a reminder from the Creator of the creation that we live in partnership with God.  As hay is dependent on the work of creation, so are our lives dependent on the ongoing work of the Creator.  Keeping our eyes toward heaven and prayers on our lips makes good sense for farmers as well as all the rest of us. 

The Plan of God

Every day is different.  No one really knows what the day is going to hold when the sun crosses that eastern horizon.  The letter James wrote has a word for those of us who have such detailed plans for our day and who get so upset when they do not come to fruition, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.'  Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring.  (James 4:13-14)  What is true about tomorrow is equally true about yesterday's tomorrow.

 

This does not speak to the fact that the world in which we live is a frightening world.  It simply acknowledges the reality that control is an illusion.  What is not an illusion is the provision and providence of the Creator and His handling of all that exists around us and through us.  And neither does this Word declare that only a fool makes plans.  Perhaps, it is more true that only a fool does not makes plans.  The difference is the wisdom in knowing intentions might be superceded by the plan of God. 

It is not so much what we plan to do, or even, what we do, but the attitude with which we do it.  One of the hard things for most of us to learn and one of the things most of learn far too slowly is that life is not really about us, but about the One who brought us into being.  Those who insist on their way are always out of step with the creation as well as the Creator.  The wise person plans, but knows that life is not in the hands of the plans, but in the hands of God.  What is coming in the moment we call today may be exactly according to our expectations, but more likely it is going to be full of twists and turns that could never be expected.   Such is the plan of God for those whom He has called to live by faith. 

Just Beyond Sight

The scorching afternoon sun sent me to a resting perch on the tailgate of the truck parked under the shade of a breeze filled pecan tree.  Exhausted, I just sat with head bowed down looking and feeling like a man beaten by the sun.  It was then that I saw an amazing thing which interrupted my thoughts about being worn out.  The ground beneath my dangling feet was filled with tiny critters scurrying around as if each had a very important task to accomplish.  There was even a small flying creature who went through my field of vision carrying a small worm. 

The moment made me aware that there is always this ever present life beneath my feet.  It is in one way invisible, yet still is seen by any of us who have eyes to see.  And, in the same moment of seeing this previously unseen life beneath my feet, I wondered about looking up to see if there was anyone scurrying about above me.  The Word of God is full of stories of about angels coming and going.  And, of course, there is that remarkable vision of the unseen cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12.  Perhaps, as I watched, I am watched.

It is not beyond the realm of possibilities.  There are those who speak of the veil between here and there as a thin veil.  And, many of us have had the experience of sensing that we are not alone, but in the presence of those who live in the heavenly place.  Such an awareness often accompanied the worship and table gatherings of the church on All Saints Sunday.  Even as my look beneath my feet revealed a world not always seen, there is surely still another world that is just beyond sight, but not completely. 

Fixing Fence

It was Sunday, but the fence post needed replacing.  It was not just any fence post, but one of many which supported the fence around the cow pasture.  While still a greenhorn when it comes to cows, I have learned the hard way that they have a knack for finding a weak spot in the fence.  And when they find a weak spot, it is not long before they are on the wrong side of the fence.  So, even though it was Sunday and I grew up in a tradition which frowned on working on the Sabbath, I grabbed the post holes diggers, a new post, and my fence fixing supplies.

 

Actually, no one came to chastise me.  No one saw me that I could tell.  Well, maybe God was watching, but then He likely had more important stuff on His agenda than watching me repair fence in the pasture.  And, besides, He has already spoken about the Sabbath.  Back in the time of Moses, He wrote ten words on stone tablets and one of them read, "Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy."  (Exodus 20:8)  Jesus ran into some folks who pulled the commandment card on Him when His disciples plucked heads of grain to eat.  (Mark 2:23)  Of course, He would have none of their self-righteousness and quickly put them in their place. 

I grew up in a religious culture which was about what could not be done on the Sabbath instead of one which spoke of how the day should positively be reverenced.  Coming to an understanding of what the Word says about Sabbath is not always easy.  And while observing Sabbath remains an important part of my spiritual discipline, it is also true that there is growing in me an awareness that every day is holy.  There is something about every day which should cause us to lift our hands in thanksgiving and to bend our knee in reverence. 

Insignificant Things

While reading some selected readings in a devotional guide today, I ran across something that triggered a memory from a long time ago.  The words being read made me think of "Hinds Feet on High Places" and sure enough, when I got to the end of the reading, there was the title and the author's name, Hannah Hurnard, which I did not remember.  I remember this book being in our home when I was but a child and reading from it with curiosity and a mind not yet able to understand all the  things which were being expressed about another's spiritual journey. 

 

It is interesting the things that leave lasting impressions.  A found book that is not understood is one.  A small country church accessible only by a dirt road across which a creek flowed requiring a frightening crossing for a young boy is another.  Laying in a field surrounded by towering dog fennels  and watching big white billowing clouds all the while wondering if God was peering over one watching me is also stored away in the deep places.  A small black Bible full of pictures of great Biblical moments is remembered and still stored away to this day. 

 

All these small seemingly insignificant things shaped the early parts of my spiritual life.  At the time I had no awareness that such was happening.  It causes me to wonder about these days.  What things are being used to shape my present spiritual journey on its way into the future?  Some things speak in unmistakable ways and others send messages which are not yet revealed to me.  What I am in the process of learning is that even the insignificant things are used by God as instruments of revelation.  The past is too full of things not seen, but the present is coming like a new page being turned in an old book reminding me that there is much still to see and know about the One who has been with me since before the beginning of the journey.    

Finding Logical Conclusions

Exactly how much Methodist preachers and theologians use the Wesley Quadrilateral might be questioned in today's world of letting secular culture shape reasonable thinking about the ways of God.  Actually, John Wesley never formulated this formal structure for theological thinking.  It was a Wesleyan scholar named Albert Outler who in 1964 noted it present in Wesley's works and put this concept into the minds of many a theological thinker.  According to the Wesley Quadrilateral, there are four things which should be employed in coming to theological conclusions.  Those four things are scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. 

The Wesley Quadrilateral always seemed useful in moving toward sound theology.  And, even as a retired preacher, it still seems like useful markers for the journey.  One other thing which I have often used in trying to reach sound theology is the practice of taking what is believed to its logical conclusion.  Where what we say we believe takes us has come to be an important consideration.  If we say we believe in capital punishment, would we then be willing to be the executioner?  If we say we believe in living more simply, what do we do with all our accumulations?  If we say we believe that God heals, are we willing to put ourselves out there in a visible way as we pray for the healing of those around us? 

The questions go on and on and on.  Is life really sacred from its beginning to its end and if such is true, how do we then deal with the vulnerabilities at both ends of the spectrum?  We do not need big theological books to figure out what beliefs are sound and true.  Even as the Wesley Quadrilateral serves to guide us, so does the Holy Spirit who dwells within in and who has the distinctive purpose of guiding us into truth.  Too many times we depend on what others are thinking and saying and forget about the truth that is seeking to surface from within our own lives.

Helpers

The ten years of retirement have been filled with helpers.  I remember one of our Bishops who opened up his first Annual Conference session by saying he knew nothing about what he was about to do and he would need a lot of help from the members of the Conference.  Most likely he was stretching the truth just a bit, but it did open the door to people wanting to be helpers instead of those who were hindrances. 

 

When I got to the farm, I did not have to tell anyone I needed help.  It was as clear as the full moon on a clear night.  One of those helpers went to the local stock market and bought our first cows.  After purchasing them, he came by to tell me he had them if I wanted them and if not, he would keep them.  He was sure they were gentle and just what I needed.  I took him at his word.  He was right.  And, when those cows got out one day because I forgot to shut the gate, he came and showed me how you get wandering cows back in the pasture.  When he died some years ago, I knew I would miss him.  He became a good friend and a helper I needed. 

Helping one another out is not complicated.  Jesus always seemed to find a way to help people with the circumstances of their lives.  He helped widows, lepers, blind folk, a self-righteous seeker, and a host of others who found themselves with tangled up lives and in need of help.  When we look around we can see folks who could use a hand, or maybe a word of hope and encouragement.  And the truth is that God may have put us in their lives so that we might offer help to them.  Some may do things which can change the world, but most of us are more likely to be in a position to help one person at a time along the way toward home. 

No Regrets

As I wrap up this season of reflecting on ten years of retirement, I must say that one thing I have never had since the day I took off the preacher's robe for the farmer's blue jeans is regret.  When I got up from my knees as an about to graduate from high school boy, I was convinced that God had called me to preach.  I did not like it.  I did not want to do it.  I actually spent the better part of the year struggling with a call I did not want to choose, but the divine will prevailed and I started what amounted to a life of preaching and ministry. 

 

Once I said "Yes" to the call to preach, there was no indecision.  While I doubted many things as a young believer, the fact that God called me to preach was like bedrock.  It became a sure foundation.  There are no regrets about saying "yes" to what God was calling me to be about with the life He had given me.   Retirement came in much the same way.  I left the robe behind convinced that it was time.  It seemed that God was as much in the decision to bring that part of my life to an end as He was decades before when it began.  After ten years of standing in a different place, there is no regret. 

 

Some might declare themselves to be the master of their fate.  Others might regard life as a deliberate response to coincidence.  If any of this is true, then I have erred on the side of believing that God has a way of leading each one of us into and through the many different seasons of our life.  I cannot imagine any other option that makes sense.  The Word tells one story after another of God leading folks through so many different kind of circumstances.  It tells us we are never left alone.  It tells us that we are in God's hands from conception to our arrival home in eternity.  On that day there will surely be no regrets for a life of seeking after God. 

Blessings

Despite the popular gospel song which is a part of my earlier years, blessings come in greater number than can be counted.  It is that way every day.  Even in the days which put us in a the middle of a powerful dark storm, there are more blessings to count than we have fingers and toes.  Folks love to say "God is good" but they seem to use it only when reporting some positive things happening in their lives.  The truth is that God is good even when the results are troubling and create hardships in our lives. 

 

Blessings are not dependent on circumstances.  They are dependent on God.  They are dependent on His goodness and mercy.  There is no end to His goodness and His mercy has no limits.  The blessings God pours into our lives may not look like the way we want God to bless us.  The fact that the blessing we receive is not the one we expect or want does not change the reality of the divine blessing.  Even in what we might call the worst of days, there are more blessings being given than we are consciously receiving and claiming. 

A good discipline is to journal blessings.  Being aware of the blessings of the day makes us more grateful.  It helps deal with the "poor me" syndrome.  It keeps us looking toward the Giver of the blessings instead of the difficult things which are weighing down upon us.  Journaling blessings also gives us a written record of how God is working in our lives to bring about good.  Write them down.  It may surprise you what the Lord has done. 

The Architect of Surprises

When we arrive where we are, it is often with a real sense of wonder.  Early in the journey of faith in Christ, it seems obvious where we are going.  And while the journey forward may well bear some resemblance to the expectations of the beginning, it is far more likely that there will at some point further down the road be more than a small amount of surprise at how it all works out.  God may be full of holiness, majesty, and glory, but He is surely the chief architect of surprises.  Even a casual review of our life reveals they have come in abundant fashion. 

As I look back at the year of ministry, I have always been surprised first of all that God called me to preach.  I have often said He was either scraping the bottom of the barrel the day He called me, or He had a moment of divine confusion and got me mixed up with someone else.  In those days I was a typical introvert who regarded conversation as something to be avoided.  And even as the years turned into decades, being given one place after another to preach is a thing of amazement in itself. 

There were moments at appointment time that I mistakenly thought I deserved better than I was going to get, but it was never really true.  Having any place at all to preach the incredible and life changing gospel of Christ was more than I deserved.  Yet, this architect of surprises continued to find a place for the likes of me to preach and even now in the worn out condition in which I find myself, I am still surprised that He seems to find me useful for partnership in what He is doing in the world. 

The Cross and the Flag

I love this country in which we are privileged to live.  I love its flag.  There has always been a special place inside of me for the red, white, and blue.  One of my earliest memories is living on Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.  I remember my father stopping the car, standing outside at attention, and saluting the distant flag as it was being lowered on the causeway.  A few years later I would see that same flag draped over his coffin.  I am unashamedly a patriot, a lover of America, and live with the greatest respect for our flag. 

 

Having said all of this, over the years I have come to hold the position that it has no place in our churches.  It speaks of a conflict of loyalty.  When we gather for worship, we gather before the cross of the crucified Christ.  Even as the Old Testament Hebrews were a people of two altars when they worshipped Yahweh and Baal, so can we become a people of conflicted loyalties as we gather in a place where cross and flag stand side by side vying for our attention. 

 

What tends to be most troubling is the way the gospel can become compromised into a message that Americanizes the message of Jesus.  We live in a day when political issues seem to pervade too many of the places where we live.   It is hard not to hear what is being propagated as news as mere political opinion.  It seems that the speaker's bias is more important than the facts of the news.  Bias has no place in the proclamation of the gospel.  It is neither liberal, nor conservative, but always revolutionary and radical.  When the flag waves too high in the life of the church, political positioning often takes the place of the radical message of Christ. 

A Field of Glory

As I watched the evening's nearly full moon dancing in and out behind billowing cloud with the sounds of exploding fireworks in my ears, I could not help but wonder about folks like you and me.  We stand in the presence of brief burning bits of light in the sky, breathe collective signs of awe, and whisper, "Wow!  See that one!  It is beautiful!"  And, most likely it is.  There is something about the display of fireworks in the sky which captivates our attention and sends us into a near worship state of wonder and awe.

 

The truth is they are really nothing.  For more centuries than we can count men and women have stood before the rising moon and moving sun in amazement and awe.  There have even been those periods of history where the spectacular orbs in the sky became objects of worship.  But, there is little chance such will happen to the like of us.  We see the brief bits of fire in the sky and fail to see the moon playing its 'now you see me, now you don't dance" with the clouds.  We marvel at the ordinary when the extraordinary is filling the field of vision for anyone who has eyes to behold.

The Psalmist wrote, "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims His handiwork..." (Psalms 19:1)  The Word reminds us we walk in the field of the glory of the Lord.  It is burning all around us.  It fills the creation from deep within the earth to the farthest parts of the universe.  It is brilliant, mysterious, mind boggling, and overwhelming to the senses, but so often we are so busy marveling at what is here now and gone in a minute that we do not catch this glimpse of the eternal glory of the Lord.  It is a glimpse which reveals what the songwriter wrote about with the words, "a foretaste of glory divine."

Holy Times

A recent overnight excursion dropped me in a place where a host of flitting lightning bugs greeted me as dark was falling hard and a great chorale of singing birds provided wake up praise music just before the light chased away the dark.  The lightning bugs brought back a memory over sixty-five years old when my father and I captured those elusive critters in a jar.  More than just a smile came over me as I stood silently and watched.   Memories flooded over me of a time so far in the past I had all but forgotten it ever happened.

For some reason there is no bird praise outside the bedroom window of our home on the farm.  Maybe it is too far from the trees.  It was nice hearing the loud and boisterous music of praise to the Creator this morning.  As I stirred awake, I started singing, ""Morning has broken, like the first morning..."  It was indeed a blessed moment of experiencing the beginning of a new day in a new place.  So many things come to us as gifts of the Creator and those lightning bugs that brought back precious memories and those songbirds which lead me in a morning sing along were both wonderful gifts for which I am grateful.

Life comes to us in such a way.  God is ever present all around us and is constantly in the process of making Himself known to us.  And as He meanders around the creation with us, He brings to us one blessing after another.  A great regret is that it took me so long to see, so long to hear, so long to realize that all of life is holy.  There is so much of God all around us and within us.  These present moments of our life are never just normal times.  They are holy times. 

Ten Years

Ten years is a long time.  Ten years ago I hung up my preacher's robe and retired to the farm.  It has been a long time.  But, it has been a good time.  Life has been filled with unfolding and surprising blessings and there is no reason to expect anything different in the future.  But, still ten years is a long time.  It is particularly a long time for someone who has moved so many times, it takes more than fingers and toes to count them all.  My father was in the Air Force until his death when I was seven and then five years later my mother re-married to a Methodist preacher.  Moving has been a part of my life since the earliest of years.

 

I was blessed to serve churches which were willing to put up with me a long time.  After serving the St. John Church in Columbus for nine years, I figured that would be the record.  I was wrong.  When I left Columbus I went to Vidalia where I stayed ten years.  Ten years is my record for staying anywhere and now I have gone past that mark in retirement.  How does someone live in one place longer than ten years?  And, even more so, how does one settle into one place for ten years and whatever might be left in the clock?

 

I suppose we do it one day at a time.  Or, maybe it is one moment at a time.  What is present is all that we can know for sure.  God and God alone knows the number of our days and the minutes which are left.  As it has always been, whatever is ahead is in His hands which hold abundant mercy, all sufficient grace, and unconditional love.  What better place to live out our days!  While I am not sure how life beyond ten years in one place looks, I do know there is no need to worry.  God is the giver of the present moment and the present moment has proven to a blessing more times than I can count so I will just continue to receive each present moment He gives to me on this earth and throughout eternity with gratitude.